Months after releasing his latest album — the very classic-sounding 7, a reunion with longtime producer Trevor Horn — he's been all over the place in 2016. He played Pontius Pilate in Tyler Perry's The Passion on Fox, and had a self-deprecating role as himself in the Andy Samberg comedy Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping. His huge hit Kiss From a Rose was used in FX's The People v. O.J. Simpson.

And his career has received new appreciation from a generation of young singers, including much-buzzed-about R&B artist Gallant, who's called Seal one of his biggest influences.

"He said that when he was coming up, when he was a young kid — he's still a young kid — I was the person that gave him permission to be different, that made him realize that we didn't have to stay in a box of our own being," Seal said in a recent phone interview. "He saw me as somebody that constantly walked to the beat of his own drum, and he admired that. That made me feel quite special when he said that."